About this season
Chronicles China’s turbulent 20th century through rare archival footage and eyewitness accounts, tracing its most violent era marked by foreign invasions, civil war, and political upheaval. The documentary examines the decades-long conflict between Mao Zedong’s Communist forces and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists (the latter supported by the U.S.), culminating in Mao’s establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949. It also explores Mao’s radical attempts to reshape China, followed by Deng Xiaoping’s transformative market reforms after Mao’s death, which steered the nation toward economic modernization.